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Utagawa Yoshitora (active 1850-1880) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist and book illustrator. Though both his date of birth and death are unknown, what is known is that Yoshitora was born in Edo and that he eventually became Utagawa Kuniyoshi's oldest pupil.<br/><br/> Yoshitora soon showed excellence in his prints of <i>bijinga</i> (beautiful women), <i>kabuki</i> actors and warriors, producing over 60 print series and illustrating more than 100 books. He was imprisoned and manacled for forty days by censors who interpreted one of his prints as a criticism of authority, which resulted in his expulsion from Kuniyoshi's studio, though he still continued to illustrate prolifically.<br/><br/> From the 1860s onwards, Yoshitora began to produce <i>Yokohama-e</i> prints of foreigners after Japan's rapid modernisations and opening up. He would collaborate on many landscape series and began working in newspapers in the Meiji Period. His last known work appeared in 1882.
Torii Kiyonaga (鳥居 清長, 1752 - June 28, 1815) was a Japanese ukiyo-e printmaker and painter of the Torii school. Originally Sekiguchi Shinsuke, the son of an Edo bookseller, he took on Torii Kiyonaga as an art-name (gō). Although not biologically related to the Torii family, he became head of the group after the death of his adoptive father and teacher Torii Kiyomitsu.<br/><br/> The master Kiyomitsu died in 1785; since his son died young, and Kiyotsune, Kiyonaga's senior, was a less promising artist, Kiyonaga was the obvious choice to succeed Kiyomitsu to leadership of the Torii school. However, he delayed this for two years, likely devoting time to his bijinga (portraits of beautiful women) and realizing the immense responsibility that would fall on his shoulders once he took over the school. Thus, in 1787, he began organizing the production of kabuki signboards and the like, which the school held a near monopoly on. He also began to train Kiyomitsu's grandson, Torii Kiyomine, who was to succeed him.<br/><br/> Kiyonaga is considered one of the great masters of the full-color print (nishiki-e) and of bijinga, images of courtesans and other beautiful women. Like most ukiyo-e artists, however, he also produced a number of prints and paintings depicting Kabuki actors and related subjects, many of them promotional materials for the theaters. He also produced a number of shunga, or erotic images.
Tachibana no Hayanari (c. 782 - September 24, 844 CE) was a Heian period Japanese government official, calligrapher, and member of the Tachibana family. He travelled to China in 804, returning in 806. His most famous surviving calligraphic work is the <i>Ito Naishin'no Ganmon</i>, now in the Imperial Household collection. He is honored as one of the group of three outstanding calligraphers called <i>Sanpitsu</i> ('Three Brushes').<br/><br/> He is honored posthumously as a <i>kami</i> at Kami Goryo Shrine Kyoto.<br/><br/> Totoya Hokkei was a Japanese printmaker and book illustrator. He initially studied painting with Kano Yosen (1735-1808), the head of the Kobikicho branch of the Kano School and <i>okaeshi</i> (official painter) to the Tokugawa shogunate.<br/><br/> Together with Teisai Hokuba (1771-1844), Hokkei was one of Katsushika Hokusai's best students.